Where are they now? Checking in with former DC resident Nicole Contaxis

NDSR residencies may be time-limited, but the impact they can have on residents’ careers can be far-reaching. For this series of interviews, we will be talking with former NDSR residents from various cohorts about how their residency affected them personally and professionally.

Program: DC 2015-2016

Host: National Library of Medicine

Can you briefly summarize what your residency focused on?

Researching software preservation and creating pilot workflows for it at the National Library of Medicine.

What aspects of your residency impacted you the most vis-a-vis your career trajectory?

Honestly, simply working at the National Library of Medicine. I currently work at a medical library in data services, and working at NLM gave me an understanding of medical librarianship that I did not have before.

What are the three most important skills you honed during your residency?

The skills I learned were largely administrative and interpersonal:

Managing up;

Arranging and running meetings;

Learning and leveraging institutional structures

What advice do you have for future NDSR cohorts or other participants in early career residencies?

Don’t accept one that doesn’t provide health insurance. Be open to new possibilities in scholarship/professional practice that you hadn’t considered earlier in your career or in graduate school. Locate mentors that aren’t necessarily the ones provided to you through the NDSR program. Consider looking for mentorship from your peers. Advocate for yourself and your needs.

What is your favorite NDSR memory?

All of the times I got to hang out with my fellow residents and the other mentors.